We Have A Problem
by Mountain King
Summary: Set a few days after the end of Season 5 Rodney discovers a problem with the Atlantis cloak and is in his element trying to fix it in time. But Dr Keller has some news for him that he isn't ready for, if she could just tell him.
1. Chapter 1

We Have A Problem  
Chapter One

Authors note:-

Just a little short story inspired from the end of the last season of Atlantis. At least that's how it started. It's kind of grown as I've written it, but it makes a change form my recent "big battle" stories as a bit of fun. This is also one of my few non crossover stories so I hope I can pull it off.

Shortly after landing Atlantis on Earth Rodney finds a problem with the cloak and tries to fix it. Also Jennifer has some news she needs to tell him...

* * *

Disclaimer

I don't own Stargate Atlantis and don't intend to make any profit from the characters I'm using. They do, however, belong to MGM/Acme Shark.

* * *

Chapter One

Rodney looked down at the controls again. He was deep in concentration, glancing from screen to screen like they were holding a ping pong tournament. Jennifer caught herself smiling at the sight, she loved that scowl he got when he was really working hard on something. She found it sweet and secretly enjoyed just pushing him that little bit further.

But not today, today was not a day she wanted him distracted by anything. As Jennifer got closer she could hear him muttering, something he only did when he was really worried about something. 'This can't be right.' He said to himself.

'What can't?' She asked him, as usual Rodney was busy and mustn't have heard her coming up the steps because he almost jumped out of his skin.

'Jennifer, uhh what... What are you doing here, aren't we meeting for lunch in like...' he looked at his tablet, 'Oh, I'm late aren't I.'

Crestfallen and apologetic Rodney was almost as sweet as concerned Rodney. Jennifer laughed and came around the console her lover was working at; 'Yeah, by about an hour.' She glanced around and took stock of where he was working. Something told her this problem was a little bigger than she first thought. 'Rodney; what's up? You're late for lunch, there's no snack food or coffee anywhere near here and this isn't even your desk.' She was concerned, this had all the signs of something bad.

'I know, had to check something. I hope I'm wrong, just... just give me a minute.' Rodney looked at the readings, frowned and began poking the tablet like a man on a mission to put his finger though it.

Jennifer looked at him, she'd spent the morning running tests and then the last two hours bouncing off the walls. It was a bit anti-climatic to have him panicking about something else. Still she had to tell him what she had found out, but the idea didn't quite fit in her head. As if the two words didn't work together. Actually they didn't, at least not to her.

Jennifer watched Rodney work himself into a panic. Maybe if she ran over the words and blurted them out quickly would help. 'I'm... late Rodney.' Said in a little voice. No, it didn't work, it was more like a mumble and she didn't say what she wanted to anyway.

Distracted, Rodney pulled the crystal tray out of the bottom of the console. 'You said something... about being late?' A plume of trapped smoke was the first hint of a real problem. 'Oh this is so not good. It was me that was late. For lunch, I'm going to have to skip it anyway.' Rodney said, skipping tracks all over the place. 'I'm really sorry about that. I saw some readings and they didn't make any sense. One thing led to another and... well you can see.' Rodney gestured at the still smoking crystals and packed up his tablet. 'Can we catch up after I've warned... just about everyone.'

Jennifer frowned, wrinkling her nose at the smell of ozone. 'This was kinda important, but so is this and mine can wait.' She bit her bottom lip, just to stop herself rambling and took a deep breath. 'Can we talk tonight though?'

Rodney headed out, stopped and turned around to face her. 'Of course. As long as the city doesn't explode before then.'

'It's that bad?'

He smiled at her. 'Not yet, but if I'm reading this right we're going to lose shields. After that we're in trouble.'

'I didn't think we'd needed the shields. I mean what use are they? It's not like anyone on Earth is going to attack us' Jennifer felt like she was missing something.

Rodney shook his head with a half smile. 'No, I mean for good. Right now though we'll just lose the...' Something dawned on him and he ran out the door, shouting at everyone to get out of his way.

Jennifer couldn't help but smile, a titanic sized problem that Rodney could panic about for an afternoon, solve in the evening and spend a night being happy about fixing. Should put him in a good mood for later. Still the best thing she could do was get out of the control room and everyone's way.

The funny thing about getting out of peoples way, Jennifer reflected on later, was as soon as you found somewhere out of the way something made you move. Wandering the hallways of the great city Jennifer realised she was restless. Two years ago these walls were alien to her. Totally.

No sooner had Jennifer got to the City than she had been thrown into the deep end. Replacing Dr Beckett as head of the medical department, using technology and science she hadn't even dreamed about. As a doctor, in Jennifer's professional opinion, she would have given herself four months before stress took her out.

Somehow she'd survived, more than that now she couldn't imagine leaving the City. Even now with her current situation, it felt like she belonged there. Shaking her head Jennifer needed to think, she needed somewhere quiet.

God what should she do? It wasn't too late and she didn't have to see it through. It wouldn't be a problem, medically at least. She had the drugs and doctor-patient confidentially wasn't an issue. In fact no one needed to know. Even if, and that could be a big if, she entered it in her records no one had access but her.

As she thought about it Jennifer became more and more afraid. It was almost too easy, terrifyingly easy to forget it all. That was why she wasn't in the infirmary, Jennifer didn't trust herself. She wasn't ready for this responsibility and as much as she loved him she didn't know if Rodney was either.

She had no right to make this decision without telling him.

More than that, as terrified as she was something deep inside Jennifer rebelled at the idea of abortion. If it was just her mothering instincts awakening she didn't know, but Jennifer could imagine her... No, their children, her's and Rodney's, playing here with Teyla's son, Torren. Laughing in the halls of the great City, their home.

She was conflicted and honestly didn't know which choice she wanted. Jennifer needed help. Only one person could do that and she had to tell him.

* * *

Teyla watched as Rodney explained the problem to herself, Mr Woolsey, Ronon and John as they stood around the beautiful wooden table in the briefing room. 'You see Atlantis didn't originally have a cloak. Remember that we put one together with a Jumper's cloak generator and the shields.'

'We remember Rodney. Get to the part where the shields are broken.' John reminded him.

'Where to start.' Rodney threw his hands up. 'First, the Zed PM's are pretty much jewellery after the whole wormhole drive and big fight thing. We're running the cloak on our backup generators, they aren't going to last forever. But that's not the problem.'

'Are we going to get to that part?' Ronon growled.

'We've been here two days Rodney.' John pointed out. 'And other than a few fishing boats getting a little too close we've not had a single problem.'

'We have, I was just to busy on damage duty to notice this thing. The shield emitters we need to keep the cloaking field operational are all but burnt out. We've got another day, at the most, before they fry completely.' Everyone frowned.

'Fry?' Mr Woolsey asked. 'How bad is that.'

John blanched. 'I'm guessing bad.'

'In layman's terms? Bad covers the short term. Catastrophically bad would be better.' Rodney was excited now that he was in his element. 'Without the emitters we're stuck here. No space flight, hyperspace or otherwise.'

'What will happen to the cloak?' Mr Woolsey asked urgently, Teyla had to admit that sounded like the most important.

'That's gone. We either turn it off now and see if we can fix the emitters or wait for them to burn out and we never use them again.'

John walked around the table. 'Rodney we're slap bang in the middle of San Francisco bay. If we de-cloak here it's not going to be covered up, that's it. Were out in the open.'

'It's a case of when, not if.' Rodney said simply. 'There is nothing I can do about it.'

'Dr McKay, doesn't Ancient technology have built in fail-safes? Won't they help hide the City?' Mr Woolsey said intently.

As Rodney shook his head as Jennifer quietly entered the conference room be hind him. 'Not with the shields like this. There are eight emitters, if one or two get damaged the others can compensate in the short term. But only by max-ing the output of the others. Don't you understand, they are all on the verge of burning out. Our only hope of salvaging anything is to turn it all off and sooner rather than later.'

'Can't we replace them?' Teyla asked but Jennifer had caught her attention, hanging back behind Rodney she looked concerned, even scared of something.

'No.' Surprisingly it was John who shook his head. 'We don't know where the spares are, or even if there are any.'

'We think its the same reason we can't find where they built the drone weapons. The Ancients didn't like other people playing with their big guns.' Rodney pointed out. 'Even if we did have replacements we'd still need to turn everything off to put them in.'

'So our problem is the emitters, do we have anything we can rig up? Even if only for the short term?' John asked, blinked and then smiled. 'Jumpers.'

Rodney clicked his fingers rapidly. 'One wouldn't be enough, even pushing the field to it's limits. But if we overlap say seven... no eight. One on each peer and two for the tower, we could layer them on the edges and with a bit of luck...'

'Will it work?' Ronon asked.

'Should do, with a naquadah generator boosting each of them. You see the problem with shields is that they constantly draw more power the more they are used. The cloak is a constant low level drain and all we need to do here is to hide the visible light spectrum. That way we can stretch it super thin without a problem.'

'Go to it.' Mr Woolsey nodded at them. 'I'll inform the IOA.' As they packed up Rodney turned and hopped backwards.

'Jennifer, wha... when did you get here.'

'A couple of seconds ago.' She admitted and Teyla saw her cross her hands on her abdomen. Almost protectively. 'I was looking for you, When you've finished we really need to talk.'

Rodney frowned; 'Are you alright...?

Teyla could tell her friend was worried and needed to talk to someone. That someone looked like Rodney. Unfortunately the problem with the cloak was quite urgent and Mr Woolsey had taken that to heart. 'Dr's McKay and Keller. As touching as this is I believe one of you has something extremely important to see do.'

Teyla had a suspicion at that point and jumped into help her friend. 'Rodney, I'm sure if Jennifer has got a problem it can wait at least a little while longer. If not I'll see what I can do to help'

Jennifer nodded quickly. 'Go to work Rodney.' Then, as if throwing caution to the wind, she kissed him on the cheek. 'W... I'll wait.'

Half shocked, it took John pushing the stunned and grinning Rodney to get him to move. Quickly the room was empty, save for Teyla and Jennifer.

'Thank you Teyla.' The doctor said, both hands still clasped over her belly.

Teyla took an intuitive leap. 'He is a father?' Jennifer wasn't ready for the question and took a few steps forward.

'You... How?' Jennifer asked sitting down, she was in shock and obviously unprepared for this blessing.

'I can tell, Jennifer you are practically glowing.' Teyla sat down next to her friend. 'Have you only just found out?'

'This... This morning. I think... I don't know what to do.' Jennifer shook her head. 'I love Rodney, I really do. But I don't think either of us are ready for this.'

'You underestimate yourselves. Anyway you still have many months before it becomes a problem.'

Jennifer stood up and walked around. 'It's... Months... I can't get my head around this. There's just too much, the world isn't the same anymore.' Teyla sat back and waited. 'It's not just months, its the rest of our lives. Mine and his, I can't bring a child up. I'm no mother and Rodney, I couldn't do that to him. He hates children, terrified of them.'

She had panicked enough. Teyla knew she had to get the doctor to calm down 'Jennifer, I had the same worries that you have now. Then, later, when my people were taken by Michael I asked myself what right I had to bring a child into this world alone. Then you and John promised to help me and I learnt something.'

Teyla looked her dead in the eyes. 'This is not just your child, nor is it just the pair of yours. Everyone in this city is one large community, a family. Where you are not ready we are, where you stumble we stand and where we fall you will hold us up. You don't need to be afraid Jennifer, we're all here for you and Rodney.'

Jennifer smiled and looked down to her hands, for the first time noticing that she was almost cradling her stomach and the smile grew wider. 'Rodney won't mind if I wait a little while to tell him, will he? Given the situation?'

'No, of course not.' Teyla laughed back. She was alright.

* * *

John watched as Rodney and Zelenka got to work. They were quickly getting up to their elbows in crystals trying to set up the interface on the jumpers. Suddenly Zelenka threw the tools up 'Rodney it won't work.'

'Of course it will.' Rodney didn't look up, he was working like a man possessed, not even stopping to eat.

'No it won't. The fields won't match.' the Czech scientist said. He had just hit on the one flaw John ad seen.

'Not unless we link them all to a single master switch and control the frequency from there.' Rodney grumbled and climbed over to where Zelenka should have been working. 'Which is what I was doing.'

'How?'

'The chair room' Rodney said simply.

Now John wasn't the first to boast about his intelligence, that he'd thought of things Rodney hadn't was always a good think in his book and his mensa application would have been accepted. But there were times the annoying super genius left him standing. This was one of those times. 'What?'

It was Zelenka that picked up the thought. 'But... But that's brilliant. We land the Jumpers, uplink them all to the Chair and network them. We won't even have to man everyone of them.'

'Half brilliant. Even as it is we won't have enough generators.' Rodney admitted. 'So here's the brilliant part we only use half the field for each jumper. in one direction.'

John was completely lost by now but Zelenka wasn't. 'An umbrella. We project an umbrella over that section of the city facing out. With them all working on the same frequency it becomes a full shield.' He sat back down and got back to work more than twice as fast as before

When the two of them were like this they were both impossible. 'Right, I can see where this is going. Me and Ronon will head on down to the chair room and wait for the two of you.'

As one the geeks looked up and said; 'Good idea.'

Beating a hasty retreat Ronon and John headed back down to the gate room. 'Think it will work?' Ronon asked him as the were coming down the steps to the control room

'With those two working on it who knows, but I'd put good money on yes.'

John looked around the control room, Woolsey was over in the office talking to his laptop. It looked like the IOA committee on the other end was being difficult. A big disadvantage of being back on Earth was the paper pushers wanted to know everything and had an opinion of every little detail. Everyone had a thousand and one new messages that the politicians wanted answered, now.

John's answer to them was to simply write it all down once and send the same report a thousand and one times. Ronon had a different tactic. To the best of john's knowledge he hadn't filed a single report. On one occasion he even shot at the "assistant" that they had sent to reprimand him

Okay he had it on stun and aimed to miss but even John thought that was a little extreme.

What worried John was how well it had worked. He was getting tempted to try it himself if they didn't stop.

Ronon tapped him on the shoulder and pointed in the other direction. From the other side of the big room. Keller and Teyla had finally left the briefing room and they were laughing at something. It was kind of odd.

As usual by now everyone in Gate operations knew there was a problem. Some probably didn't know what was happening exactly, but it was a safe bet everyone here knew how much trouble they were in.

To have the two women laughing and joking sort of ruined the urgent atmosphere that had descended on the room. John and Ronon joined them at the top of the stairs. 'Hey you two, something happening?'

Keller and Teyla smiled a pair of matching grins. Finally Keller's grin broke and she laughed lightly as they walked across the gate room to the corridors 'Well I've got a dinner to prepare. A little treat for Rodney, thanks Teyla.'

'No need and congratulations.' Keller nodded and left them.

It was a distance to the Chair Room but John was in no rush so they walked instead of taking the transporter. There was something peaceful about wandering the seemingly endless hallways of Atlantis

'So what was that about?' He asked after a short while, curiosity getting the best of him.

'Jennifer has some news for Rodney, but as usual he's busy at the moment.'

John nodded, vague and useless but still an answer. 'You know what that news is.'

'Yes, Jennifer is pregnant.'

John's train of thought de railed itself. Keller, pregnant. As in child. As in a small kid. Keller, as in Rodney's girlfriend, pregnant. For a brief moment John wondered just how pissed off and disappointed Rodney would be.

Then the other shoe dropped and John walked right into a wall. He was able to catch his balance and not quite fall on his butt. Rubbing his nose John muttered; 'Ouch. Well that's news. He's going to freak.'

Before Teyla could answer there was a loud crash and a thud, out of the corner of his eye John saw two legs fall down a balcony and no sign of Ronon.

'Chewie!' John darted for the railing that the tall satedan had flipped over

Teyla was right beside him and said at the same time; 'Ronon!' A little drop below Ronon sat up and shook his head.

It wasn't a crowed hallway butt the few people there were gathering, completely ignoring them Ronon stood and then looked up. 'Did I hear you right?'

John and Teyla looked at each other and nodded.

'What am I doing down here then?'

'Nothing.' John shouted down. 'You okay?'

By now there was a little crowd around the former Runner. he glanced at them before shrugging. 'Yep.'

End Chapter One


	2. Chapter 2

We Have A Problem  
Chapter Two

Jennifer had another couple of hours before her shift was over, being back on Earth meant there wasn't a medical emergency or mind wiping virus about to strike. In fact it was rather quiet. So quiet she'd given Marie and the rest of her staff the day off. At first it was so she could run the pregnancy test in private, now it was just to have a brake and give the overworked team a rest.

Just in case someone had to stay in the infirmary ad because she was still the senior doctor on base it might as well be her. She had already spent the morning shuffling and filing equipment while waiting for the results. With a shrug she turned to the corner that doubled as her office. Digging out her laptop Jennifer opened up the video player and found her copy of Dr Horrible.

She was humming along when Ronon, Teyla and Colonel Shepherd came in. 'Look I'm fine.' Ronon insisted for what sounded like the thousandth time.

'Ronon you took a swan dive over the balcony.' Teyla told him. Jennifer shook her head and paused the video. She should have know if anyone could hurt themselves on base it would be the Satedan.

'Yeah buddy. We all know you've got a hard head but you should get it seen to.'

Jennifer stood up. 'What has he done now?' she asked and all three of them jumped. 'What didn't you see me?'

Ronon looked at her and took a step back. 'No, we didn't.'

'Shouldn't you be... day off.' the Colonel said taking a step back himself.

'I gave everyone else the day off.' Jennifer walked to one of the beds and picked up the pen light she'd left there. The two men were keeping their distance. 'Okay what's wrong, I mean really?'

'Nothing.'

'Not a thing.' They both lied, badly, at the same time.

Teyla owned up. 'I told them.'

'What?' Jennifer almost shouted, sure they were friends but she had told them. How could Tayla do something like that. After all she kept her pregnancy secret for months. 'How could you do that to me?'

'Wait, hear me out. Jennifer you were panicking, terrified even. You needed someone to talk to so will Rodney. You don't honestly think they'll be any help without a warning.' 'Jennifer had to admit that was a good point. 'Rodney will need their help as much as you needed mine. Ronon fell over a banister and John walked into a wall.'

'Forewarned is forearmed you know.' The Colonel pointed out.

Jennifer had to grudgingly agree, if walking into a walls and flipping over balconies was how the men reacted it might have been a good idea. 'Come on Ronon, sit down and let look at you.'

Ronon half growled and sat down. From a quick check he wasn't bleeding from anywhere, Jennifer checked his retina response. 'Headache, back pains?'

'No.' Ronon said. He looked okay, iris responses were as they should be.

'How badly did you land?'

He tried to shrug but pulled off a wince. 'Didn't notice.' He did a good job of hiding it but she had enough experience dealing with the uncooperative former runner to tell.

Jennifer could guess, Ronon might not have noticed the landing but he was bruised. She glanced at the Colonel, he'd give her an answer. 'About a dozen steps, ended on the landing. Not too far.'

Teyla agreed. 'From the way he fell I think he landed on his shoulders.'

'I told you I'm fine.' He insisted as Jennifer got around behind him. She didn't ask him to take his top off, she didn't need to. Pushing the dreadlocks aside there weren't any lumps or bumps. His neck was fine but she could see a red mark, the beginnings of a nasty bruise across his shoulders.

'You're alright.' she sighed. 'I don't want you lifting anything heavy or swinging you're arms like a windmill for a few days, but you'll be fine. If you were anyone else I'd have you on light duties for a week or more.'

Ronon jumped up off the bed and smiled. 'Told ya.'

'Colonel, over here please.' Jennifer smiled.

'I'm, what? Why?'

'You walked into the wall didn't you.' She smiled sweetly at him before letting it fall off.

'Rodney need's me in the chair room.' The Colonel's eyes darted from Jennifer to Teyla and back again. The two of them just looked back at him coldly.

Colonel John Shepherd could face an army of Wraith with nothing but a pistol and a carving knife. Even so he knew better than to try and and stand up to that. With a quick; 'Bye.' he scarpered.

* * *

Rodney was not happy. He was hungry, tired and had to clean up after someone else's mess. Anyone of those was a good reason o be angry for him, but the most annoying of them all was having to cancel a lunch date with Jennifer. 'Something wrong?' Radek asked.

Busy trying to find the frequency that would work on the cloaking field the super genius didn't even bother to look up. 'Your job.' Rodney grunted at his friend and ran another frequency projection

'What?'

'Checking the shields was your job. You were on Atlantis at the time, you were the one to switch it over to cloak. You should have checked.' That frequency also failed on the tiny simulation. He had to find the right tuning to use as little power as possible and would merge on the edges. Although every time he tried to extend the field it would either splutter and die, pull more power than it had available or one time even explode.

'I was rather busy at the time Rodney.' The Czech said through ground teeth. 'We were under attack and then forced in to re-entry.'

Looking up Rodney said sarcastically 'Oh yes and where was I? That's right on a raid to the biggest Wraith Hive in existence arming a nuclear bomb!'

'Yes and it was very impressive, but I had to make the decision at that time. What would you have done?' Radek was getting angry. Good, Rodney always said misery loved company.

'I would have told someone the shields were slag.' Rodney looked down again. Another simulation failed. 'Damn it! Where's John?'

'Right here Rodney.' His team mate walked in. 'How's it going?'

'Badly.' Radek summed it up.

'Not badly, just not good.' Rodney corrected. 'Look reformatting the emitters was a lot easier than I thought. We've already sent the Jumpers out into the best points, we can modulate and control everything from here.'

'Only one slight problem. To expand the field big enough to do what we need it to do it becomes weaker. Fluctuating on the edges.' Radek explained. 'We are having problems keeping the frequencies matching if they don't they cancel each other out...'

'And it's a big problem yes. Although I have an answer.'

'It won't work.' Radek insisted

'Yes it will, besides you don't know what it is.' Rodney was getting tired of Radek second guessing him.

Only problem was this time the other scientist was right. 'The Atlantis computer isn't built like that. It's a data retrieval problem solver, not a real time simulator. The lag time from anything we set up would cause it all to short out at the first sign of trouble. It would be like trying to use a DVD player to play world of warcraft.'

Rodney frowned, he was right. They could program something that could modulate the field but it wouldn't have the speed needed to keep the cloak working. Then he had another idea. 'There is one computer here we can use, we just lock it in we're sorted.'

Thankfully Radek understood. 'That could work, it's what the interface was designed for after all.'

John looked back and forth between them. 'You guys want to let me in on this?'

Rodney gestured for Radek to tell him while he stared to confirm the connections between the chair and the Jumpers. 'You see we can get it to work, but we need to keep alternating the frequency to keep it from cancelling itself out.'

'Right, sort of with you so far.' John said carefully. 'So you need something that can keep up with the change.'

'Yes. Your going to have to stay in the chair until we rig something else up or fix the shields.'

'How long will that take? An hour?' John said hopefully.

'A few days.' Radek suggested. 'Even a week.'

'More like a month.' Rodney admitted securing the last connection.

John didn't move. 'Run this one by me again, you want me to sit in that chair for a month!'

'Two at the most. If we can't fix the shield by then it's impossible.' Rodney waved the time off.

Still he didn't move. 'Rodney there has got to be a better idea than me in the control chair, FOR TWO MONTHS!' John shouted.

'You won't be in there for that long.' Rodney shook his head. 'Look; as impressive as this simulation I designed is, it's not infallible. I think Radek did some work on it. The point is we need to see this working, we can write a program that mimics what your doing. Now can we hurry? Every second we waste could be vital and I'm really hungry.' He was, with no lunch in it Rodney's stomach was rumbling so badly it was stopping him from thinking.

John looked at him and smirked. 'I can't wait for you to have dinner. I mean it I truly can't.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Rodney asked.

'Nothing.' John grinned. 'Figure it out Rodney, I don't intend to spend two months sitting in he same damn chair.' Still he set his shoulders and sat down. The floor light lit up and the chair lent back with the usual low hum. Rodney nodded and tried not to notice that John's feet were hanging off the edge.

'Right. Now imagine a map of the city then bring up the location of the eight jumpers.' Rodney looked up, the inverted image had eight little symbols spinning in pretty much the right places. 'Good. I'm uploading the best settings we've got. I need you to forward them to each Jumper's command system.'

The symbols spun a little faster and began flashing. 'They're networked Rodney.' Radek supplied

'Good now remember right now you're the network's server system so concentrate.' Rodney said to John before looking up and gesturing to Radek who tapped his headset

'Zelenka to all Jumpers; report.' He waited for a moment. 'They've got the update Rodney.'

'So then all that's left for us to do is activate the new cloak and see if it holds.' Rodney looked at John and nodded. His team mate lent back and closed his eyes again.

The map above pulled back to a larger scale and showed the eight separate fields. They were overlapping just as Rodney hoped. Then the fields began to flash.

'It's not working.' Radek said urgently

'The frequencies are randomly shifting to fast.' Rodney glanced down at his tablet.

'I can't hold it.' John ground out under the strain of concentration. 'A plan would be good right about now Rodney.'

Radek was looking at the screen 'According to this the disruption is because the overlapping thresholds are interfering with each other.'

'I don't get this, you're right. They should be helping each other not interfering.' An idea came to him. 'Resonance.'

Sometimes he even amazed himself. Throwing the tablet away as it was nowhere near good enough for the job needed he pushed Radek from the Atlantis computer. 'We need to echo the frequency, we need eight separate programs each echoing off the others. In sequence.'

'What good will that do?' Radek and John asked at the same time.

'Think of it like a snowball rolling down a hill. If each emitter was arranged slightly off to each other instead of interfering or cancelling themselves out they would resonate off each other.'

'You can do all that?' John asked from the chair

* * *

'And that's how I did it.' Jennifer shook her head as Rodney boasted about his latest success. If she was honest he'd lost her with scientific mumble jumbo about half an hour ago. Just like her early days at medical school she was certain Rodney and his fellow scientists just made up words on the spot to confuse people.

They were walking down the corridors of Atlantis, heading to dinner. 'So it worked?' She asked finally, teasing him a little.

Rodney almost tripped over his own feet. 'Well of course...' He stopped and blinked for a moment. 'oh right humble.'

Jennifer snickered before bumping him with her shoulder, Rodney joined in laughing with her. She didn't want to let on just how nervous she was, luckily Rodney was so caught up in his saving of the city that he hadn't noticed.

Another thing he hadn't noticed until now was they they were not heading to the commissary. 'Hey where are we?" Rodney looked around. 'And isn't that..'

'My quarters.' Jennifer interrupted. 'Yep, I thought we'd have a more quiet meal.'

Rodney didn't catch on 'What? You mean...?'

All the nervous tension in her became laughter. 'You really are bad at this.' She took his hand and pulled him into her quarters.

Rodney nodded. 'I guess I am.' He was agreeing as they got inside and he literally stopped in shock. She hadn't gone as far as lit candles and dark lighting but Jennifer had done her best. 'You did this.' he waved at the large table.

'Well other than Ronon doing a back flip down the stairs we had a slow day at the infirmary.'

'Ronon jumped off a balcony?' Rodney asked frowning

Jennifer nodded. 'He wasn't looking where he was going and tripped.' She shrugged, fudging the facts a little and Rodney laughed.

'I'm going to remind him of that next time a root trips me up.' Then he stopped. 'Alright what's going on?' he suddenly said defensively.

His sudden change destroyed what confidence she had built. 'W... what do you mean.'

'You've gone to all this trouble for this dinner. Jennifer you've even got fruit cups from the infirmary.'

'Well, I like the fruit cup.' She mumbled defensively. She had already lost and Jennifer knew it. 'Okay Rodney, you might need to sit down.'

She looked up at him and her heart almost broke. The look on his face was so hurt, she knew he really did love her. 'Don't say what I think your going to say. Please.' he practically begged her. 'If you're going to...'

Grabbing his hand she shook her head. 'No Rodney it's nothing like that I promise.' He thought she was going to brake up with him. Typical, Rodney was always looking for the worst possible problem.

Once or twice in a persons life they have a flash of insight. A hunch that makes no sense but perfect sense at the same time. This was one of those moments for Jennifer. If the worst possible thing was Rodney thinking she was leaving him then her condition was nothing... there was nothing wrong with it.

Like the picture of a white vase becoming two black faces all the fear and nervousness vanished. 'I'm pregnant Rodney and I love you.'

On reflection what happened next could have gone better.

* * *

John looked out over the bay from outside the Control Room. 'So it's working?' he asked Zelenka. Who had been watching the output on a monitor.

'It really was brilliant. Each field enhancing the other through harmonic resonance. I've been thinking we could use the same idea with the main shields when we have them repaired.'

'So better and more efficient shields?'

'Very much so, it is not a good sign. Rodney will be impossible to work with for a week or more.'

'Don't you mean more impossible to work with?' John asked. 'I don't think so, actually I think he's going to be occupied with something else.'

'Oh really?' Zelenka frowned. 'Like what?'

It was understandable, very little could distract Rodney when he was bragging. 'Keller's having a kid.'

That stopped Radek in his tracks 'Rodney, a father? Oh God.' The scientist summed up the situation perfectly.

Behind them the door opened and Ronon came in grinning from ear to ear. 'She's told him.' He informed them both.

John nodded. 'Right, I'll get the beer you two get him.'

'He's not going anywhere Shepherd.' Ronon chuckled. 'He fainted and hit his head on a table. Doc say's he's got concussion.'

John blinked and bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing like a drain. 'Figures.' he managed to say before Zelenka set him off.

End Chapter Two


	3. Chapter 3

We Have A Problem  
Chapter Three

'What do I do now?' Rodney asked plaintively. He honestly hadn't a clue, the whole situation was a first for him and all Rodney could say was he didn't like it.

The answer, as it was, came from Ronon:- 'You finish your beer and get another.'

"I think he means after that.' Radek pointed out.

'Oh.' Ronon took a swig from his bottle. 'Then it's John's round.'

'Hey, no it's... Oh yeah.' John remembered and had pull on his beer. Rodney smirked, he wasn't the only one that had lost track how many they'd had. Although the way his mind was racing he couldn't tell if the alcohol was effecting him.

One thought just bounced from one side of his vast brain to the other, knocking everything else out like a bowling ball skipping lanes. He had barely gotten out of the infirmary, let alone come to terms with Jennifer's news, when his three friends had ambushed him with a literal crate of beer.

Together, carrying the scientist, they had headed over to the south pier and sat on one of the edges, looking out over the bay. With a shock Rodney realised he hadn't said a thing until now, just drank. 'I didn't think... I never thought I'd ever...' He just trailed off, what could he say.

It was John who came to his rescue. 'Rodney, and I can't believe I'm going to say this, you might do alright.'

'You think so?' He asked

John quickly looked out over the water and brought his beer up. 'Sure. Why not.' Rodney could tell he was lying, John wasn't good at it.

'Rodney, it's a big step but you're a... well not a good man but you're not a bad man either.' Radek tried to help in his usual non helpful way. After humming and trying to say something nice under Ronon's death glare the scientist looked at his own beer and finished by saying; 'This is nice.'

Finally Ronon said something 'There are two things you can do. First is marry her the other is face me in combat.'

'What?' Rodney asked, genuinely shocked.

'Marry her Rodney. You don't have a choice.' Ronon growled.

'Sure I do. I just have to think about one...' The thing was Rodney couldn't think of any other option. He was going to have to marry her, at least ask.

'One question Rodney.' Radek asked. 'Why don't you want to marry her?'

'It's not that I don't want to, I really really do but what do I do? "Oh hey, now that your pregnant I might as well marry you." How's that going to look?'

Rodney was on a roll now. 'You guys remember Katie Brown. I rushed that and look what happened, she had to leave and I really think I hurt her. I can't do that to Jennifer, I'd rather let Ronon beat me up.' He stood up and began pacing. 'You know what's going to happen. It will be alright for another few months then I'll do something stupid and she'll hate me for it, I'll get angry and the next thing you know I'll never see her again!'

John grabbed him 'Snap out of it McKay. You're freaking out!'

'Damn right I'm freaking out and this is just the start. Wait until it sinks in then it's going to be a full on panic attack.' Rodney tried to calm down. 'I never was an athlete, I didn't even have a date for the school dance. I'd kinda given up on the whole meeting someone thing you know. I decided that the legacy I wanted to leave was a scientific one. An achievement that went down in the history books. The great Rodney McKay, world famous scientist. Then this comes out of nowhere and blam! Meredith Rodney McKay you are a dad.'

That got Radek's attention, 'You gave up on having a family for scientific acclaim?'

'No, weren't you listening? I wanted scientific acclaim because I thought I didn't have a chance with women. Try to keep up.' Rodney admitted and then bit his tongue, that wasn't something he wanted to admit to anyone. Least of all himself.

John just looked at him, Rodney got the feeling his friend was re-evaluating him, just great his little sob story had revealed more of himself to pity. Fantastic. 'Rodney, I don't pretend to understand it and I don't want to. For some reason you have an attractive and clever woman in your life and you're so worried about hurting her it's keeping you from doing the right thing.'

Rodney ran that through his mind a few times. 'Yes, that doesn't make any sense what so ever does it.'

As one his three friends smirked and said; 'No. Have a beer.'

* * *

It was morning and Jennifer had woken early, her stomach rumbling for breakfast. She hadn't reached the morning sickness stage yet, but it was only a matter of time. Then again feeling how hungry she was right now her child already had their father's appetite.

Getting dressed she caught herself smiling, it was the sort of serene content smile she'd seen pregnant women with before. As if her good mood was just bubbling out of her. Everything wasn't right with the world. Just right enough.

Throwing her jacket over her shoulders Jennifer was ready for her breakfast date. The plan was to meet Rodney outside his quarters at the usual time, about an hour after he was supposed to wake up and head to the commissary together.

Passing the handful of other people awake heading the other way to the transporter Jennifer just kept smiling. It was funny how just about everyone noticed her grin and gave her a friendly "Good morning doctor." back. If she was paranoid Jennifer would have thought someone had been talking behind her back but Teyla and the others wouldn't do that. Nodding to them she waited outside Rodney's door for a full minute before knocking.

No answer.

She knocked again and the still wasn't an answer A thousand worries came to her, was he really Okay after last night? Had he ran off? Was he hurt somewhere, calling for her?

No that was stupid, he had his headset. Maybe something had came up, Zelenka might have called him for help with something and he just got bogged down in work. Sighing she felt her stomach rumble loudly. Food first, then find him seemed the best idea.

He wasn't in the commissary, grabbing a banana and a cup of coffee Jennifer was thinking of eating both on the go when someone waved her over. Pushing through the crowd she already knew it wasn't Rodney, but someone who might know where he was. 'Jennifer, join me?'

She smiled 'Morning Carson, have you seen Rodney?' she asked the other senior doctor as she sat down. Dr Beckett was technically only "attached" to the Atlantis Expedition. Which meant, as he was a consultant, she was still the head of the medical staff. Mr Woolsey seemed to enjoy putting everyone in roles that confused everyone else with red tape and paper work.

Still Carson had authority over research and field work, leaving Jennifer the standard medical practice and the occasional fun part of re-coding Wraith DNA. Sometimes she was really jealous of her predecessors clone. Other times she was just confused by it all.

'No, sorry love I haven't. Why, is something the matter?'

Jennifer laughed. 'No, well not really. Colonel Shepherd, Ronon and Zelenka grabbed him as soon as I let him out of the infirmary.'

'The infirmary, what happened.' Carson asked.

It was then she realised he didn't know. 'Urm... I think Rodney will want to tell you. He's fine though.'

Carson nodded over her shoulder 'Aye, speak of the devil. How's it going.'

Jennifer was happy to see him but he looked more than a little distracted, Half smiling and staring at her. He hadn't even noticed Carson, let alone heard him.

A few quick jerks of her head and Rodney got the message. 'Oh morning Carson. You alright?'

The Scotsman hid a smile, all be it badly. 'Not too bad, all recovered after landing the City.'

'Yeah, nice job. We're still finding bits to fix.' He snapped back, there was no one else like him after all

'Rodney!' Carson protested and Jennifer mock punched her lover's arm.

He turned back to her and after a flash of pure terror in his eyes Rodney knelt next to her. 'Jennifer,' he began and her heart skipped. He wouldn't, not here in front of all these people. 'This was so much easier when I was rehearsing last night. There's so much I want to say, but I'll just make a mess of it. I'm no prize, I know that better than most and when it comes down to it I know I'm not a good man.

'But I try, I really do. I want to be a man that... that can be a father. That can be a friend and more than that to you.'

Still knelt there he continued. 'I haven't a ring or anything. Just me and for all that's worth will you have me?'

Jennifer was speechless, she had expected something like that but not this soon. She had subtle hints and everything. After a moment of jaw flapping she felt a great smile blossoming across her face. 'Is that your idea of a proposal?' she teased.

Laughing lightly Rodney brushed a tear from her face. She didn't even know she was crying. 'Only if you say yes.' he said, reminding her of their old joke.

If she was honest she hadn't noticed how the whole room was quiet. Everyone, to a man was waiting to see her answer. Not wanting to disappoint them she leaned in and kissed Rodney soundly before hugging him. 'Don't be so silly, of course I will.'

The whole commissary exploded in whoops and cheers, Carson went as as far as applauding them and all Rodney could do was match her smile. 'Thanks, can I ask a favour?'

'Ask it.'

'Can you help me up, I think I've pulled something in my leg.'

* * *

A month later

Jeannie Miller was a brilliant scientist, her husband always joked that she could even program a VCR with her eye's closed. Even though there were few things she liked better than baking with her little girl.

Right now Maddie was literally up to her armpits in cake mix and covered in flour. It was her father, Jeannie's husband's, birthday and while he was out working Jeannie wanted to make sure everything was ready for the party tomorrow.

It was then the phone rang, brushing her hands on the ingredient covered apron she picked it up. 'Hello?'

'Hi Jeannie, it's me.' Meredith sounded apologetic already and she'd only just picked up the phone.

'Mer, you're back home?' She asked. On the other end her brother hummed and grunted. Now she knew something was wrong. 'What is it?'

'I should have called you earlier, but things are a bit crazy over here. We're in San Francisco.' He said evasively.

Jennie frowned. 'So you're on holiday in...' It took her a second to put San Francisco together with the fireball in the sky almost two months ago. 'Oh, you're not on holiday. You're...'

'Yes. I've got some news for you. How would Madison like a friend to play with, in a couple of years.'

Jeannie blinked. Her brother was never one for cryptic but he couldn't have meant what she thought he'd said. 'Mer, she's got lots of friends. Are you talking about a cousin?'

'That would be, yeah . Look I'm not really....'

Jeannie was glad he couldn't see her face. Any minute now she was going to explode in laughter 'Not really good at this.' she finished for him. 'Not ready for it. In trouble?'

'You could say that.' Mer grumbled.

'Just checking, this isn't a freaky Pegasus thing is it?'

'No!' Mer shouted indignantly. 'It's not some freaky anything. It's a kid, perfectly normal.'

'Except it's yours Mer. That could never be normal' She couldn't keep from laughing, but there was something else. 'Sorry, here's a point, how? I mean I thought you and Katie broke up?'

'We did, I messed that up badly Jeannie.' Mer said soberly. 'I won't do it again.' He was deadly serious. Jeannie had never heard him so serious, even that one time the school bully had pulled her pigtails and he had tried to stand up to them. He'd come home crying and bruised that day.

For all his faults her brother could occasionally do something incredibly brave. 'Who's the mother Mer?'

He didn't answer for a moment and then there was the sound of another phone being picked up. 'Hi there.' a half familiar voice said.

'Jennifer? Doctor Keller?' Jeannie asked.

'Yes to both, we weren't actually planning on it and now we've got all these plans we have to make and neither of us know what we're doing, we're not ready.' The Atlantis Doctor babbled down the phone.

'Hold on' Jeannie interrupted the woman's babbling. 'You, but you're, well don't take this the wrong way but you're smart, attractive and I would have said way out of my brothers league.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' the two of them said at once. It was almost adorable if it wasn't so defensive.

'Sorry Mer but I'm your sister and there are times I can only just about stand you. What would a doctor of all people see in my brother?'

'Now come on!'

'I guess over the years he's worked here he's shown a different side of his character.' Dr Keller said, defending him. 'I guess if he had called earlier you might have had the chance to find that out.'

'I was busy fixing the single most important thing on this base. I've not been sleeping and I'm really not cut out for this.' Mer took a deep breath.

'Look Jeannie we both need you and what's-his-name here.'

It was kind of sweet the pair of them were way over their heads and they called the one person they knew with a stable marriage. Why did it have to be her. 'Look I can't just drop everything. It's Caleb's birthday and I've got all that to deal with. I can come down in two days. You can keep it together for that long.'

Her soon to be sister-in-law laughed lightly. 'It's not us we're worried about.'

'Pardon?'

Mer chuckled himself. 'John said we we're giving the whole base the creeps. He thinks we should be at each others necks shouting, but neither of us can think of a reason why. '

Jeannie knew what he was going to say and it was truly terrifying. 'We might not be ready but we can take care of it, together.' her bother said deadly serious. It was worse than she thought, Mer really was in love.

Jennie was certain somewhere out there the devil had just bought a pair of ice skates

End Chapter Three


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